Texas set to pass transgender bathroom law for schools
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — May 23, 2017
The issue remains that many lawmakers in Straus's House do not want to vote on the bathroom bill.
"HB3859 is taxpayer funded discrimination", the ACLU of Texas said in a statement. We look forward to creating a place where all are welcome within the boundaries of state law.
The Texas Legislature passed a bill extending religious liberty protections to the child welfare system, which would allow adoption agencies to reject potential parents on religious grounds. Larry Taylor, the author of the bill, for review.
Taylor stripped the bill of several of the original tweaks from the House that were meant to either simplify the funding formulas or allocate money to specific student groups - he said they would cost too much money. Now, the bill will head back to Sen.
"It's heartbreaking", said Sen. Opponents said it's an attack on transgender people. It passed the House on Sunday but still needs approval from the state Senate, which is expected to support it. "Now it is simply a voucher scheme that hands public dollars, with zero accountability, to private schools".
The Senate's preferred school voucher bill, Senate Bill 3, has languished in a House committee without a vote.
At the same time, he packed HB 21 with provisions from other bills in the House and Senate - including $100 million in first-time facilities funding for charter schools, $20 million in grants for schools running programs for kids with autism, and a 15-member commission for long-term school finance reform.
The bill's backers, which include several Christian groups, said it banned no one and had a mechanism for the state government to offer alternative adoption providers if any service is denied for religious beliefs.
"We missed an opportunity here", said Sen. The bill would not require private schools to provide public education. "The House made a honest effort to start fixing our school finance system, but the Senate is trying to derail that effort at the 11th hour", he said.
The Texas Senate voted early Monday to attach a modest voucher plan to a sweeping, bipartisan school finance bill that already cleared the House - potentially dooming an effort to pump an extra $1.6 billion into classrooms and begin overhauling the troubled way the state pays for public education.
